222. Plains of Giant Insects

“Full-scale search and exploration activities will begin after establishing a forward base. Please use the supplies I’ve brought to set up a base camp, prioritize creating a stable environment, and then we’ll commence our main operations.”

Scattering from the start would be disastrous, so after I transport all the supplies and lay the groundwork for the base, we’ll use it as our reference point to begin conquering the 7th floor.

We need to unpack all the basic necessities, food, and construction materials first to avoid problems in our later activities.

“And if we run out of food, we’ll have to hunt monsters for sustenance. Please hunt the edible monsters listed in the Monster Dismantling and Appreciation guide.”

“Hey! Can’t we just eat bread?”

One of the adventurers in the subjugation team raised their hand and asked if they couldn’t just eat bread.

I wanted to snap, What kind of bread are you expecting on the 7th floor? but I held back.

I knew that, for people in this world, bread was a staple food like rice, and the more stressful the situation, the more they’d crave familiar meals.

I understood that bread was a way to reduce their stress. We’d be stuck on the 7th floor for months-if I told them there wasn’t even bread, they might get homesick and lose morale.

“We can farm, but first, we’ll need to check if the land where we’ll set up our forward base is suitable for agriculture.”

“Farming? Is that even possible?”

“It is on the 7th floor. You could say it’s practically another world. Rain falls, snow falls-seasons and weather exist there. And we’ll be using fertilizer provided by the alchemists for farming.”

This was the key point.

With the fertilizer prepared by Ulysses, the shaman who became an Alraune, and Rafnel, we could drastically accelerate plant growth.

Most importantly, Rafnel is part of this expedition.

Since Rafnel was in the research team with the mages from the Magic Tower, she’d be the one cultivating wheat.

If we used the subjugation team’s adventurers as laborers and applied the fertilizer properly, we could ensure a stable wheat supply.

“I think I’ve covered most of what I needed to say, so we’ll start heading down now.”

“Everyone, line up! The transfer gate’s closing soon! Two at a time!”

Jason, the Martial Hall Director and leader of the subjugation team, barked orders, and the adventurers quickly formed orderly lines.

Thanks to him, the adventurers seemed to be in better shape. Normally, they’d act freely and recklessly, but now, strangely enough, discipline had taken hold.

Seeing them so tightly organized put me at ease.

“Let’s go in, then.”

I placed my hand on the transfer stone to open the gate. Just then, Chloe, standing beside me, asked:

“Are you trembling?”

“If I said I wasn’t, I’d be lying.”

I was afraid. There was no telling what hardships awaited us down there.

“Don’t worry too much. It’ll be fine.”

“I hope so.”

With Olivia’s reassurance, I stepped into the pitch-black darkness.

******

The nausea I felt was similar to the first time I’d used a transfer stone.

That unique, gut-wrenching sensation of traversing an immense distance.

“Shion! Get up!!”

I didn’t even have time to process the nausea. At Maximus’ urgent shout, I scrambled to my feet, staggering as I took in the scene before me.

The ground was shaking. In the midst of the violent tremors, I couldn’t even close my mouth as I screamed.

“Holy shit!”

Dirt and rocks soaring skyward.

The earth convulsing and bursting apart, trees uprooted from the ground.

And a massive vortex, looming as if to swallow everything whole.

No-that wasn’t a vortex.

That was a mouth.

“A calamity…!”

A calamity was approaching.

A bug of monstrous size.

A living disaster that churned the earth beneath it, devouring every living thing in its path.

“That’s a Crush Worm!!”

Ulysses shouted. Named for its ability to grind everything in its path to dust.

The presence of that monster meant we had transferred into the Plain of Giant Insects.

If we leave it like this…

The adventurers coming in after us would get sucked into that thing’s maw and be torn apart.

We had to stop that at all costs.

“Joshua! Change that bastard’s course!!”

I pulled out a highest-grade magic stone from my inventory and hurled it toward Joshua.

The ground was shaking so violently that I couldn’t reach where Joshua had transferred. Maximus, Olivia, and Ulysses had appeared near me, but Joshua and Chloe had landed much farther away.

“I can’t hear what you’re saying! But I’m guessing you want me to redirect it?!”

With the Crush Worm tearing through the earth, no amount of shouting would let us hear each other.

I couldn’t make out Joshua’s words, and he couldn’t understand mine either.

But our intentions still aligned.

He instantly grasped the meaning behind me throwing the highest-grade magic stone and acted accordingly.

“Starting off with Demon King Transformation?!”

Joshua tore open his mechanical chest and slotted in the magic stone.

As the highest-grade stone burned and rapidly melted, his body began to change.

“Everyone, cover your ears!!!”

Joshua’s arms and legs anchored into the quaking ground, and the top of his head split open, revealing a mechanical device resembling a speaker.

Joshua, who had created a false god by sacrificing his lifespan, had gained the divine authority of Amplification.

“KIIIIEEEEEEEEEE-!!!!”

A noise too hideous to be called music blasted forward, and the Crush Worm, which had been mindlessly charging toward us, twisted its body and changed direction.

After rampaging for a while, it burrowed back underground, and Joshua, his Demon King Transformation undone, spewed steam as he shut down.

It was a complete mess. Everything ahead was wrecked.

The upturned earth and rocks were scattered chaotically, and uprooted trees were impaled haphazardly everywhere.

The sight of dead insect monsters strewn about, leaking stinking bodily fluids, made it impossible to tell whether this was reality or a nightmare.

“Fuck… Starting off like this?”

The difficulty was insane.

What kind of monster did they throw at us right after transferring, trying to wipe out half of us from the get-go?

I could feel the labyrinth’s thick malice.

“If the labyrinth collapses, monsters like that will be unleashed on the surface. This is insane.”

Maximus wiped cold sweat from his brow and muttered blankly.

As he said, if we failed to stop the labyrinth’s rampage and the nightmares broke free, monsters like that would roam the surface.

Forget Demon Kings-just the 7th-floor monsters alone were absurdly massive. Their sheer size was on par with buildings, and their reproductive activities alone could collapse entire cities.

“We absolutely cannot let the labyrinth collapse.”

I reaffirmed my resolve.

If monsters like that escaped the labyrinth, humanity would have no future.

BOOM-!!!

“Oh, for fuck’s sake.”

Just as I was about to catch my breath, the monsters clearly had no intention of waiting.

Grasshoppers the size of vans leaped toward us. Their sheer size was overwhelming. Everything here was just big.

If your physical abilities weren’t up to par, a single body slam would crush you to death. They were trying to flatten us.

CRASH!!!

The ground caved in as if a meteor had struck, but Maximus, caught beneath one of them, endured with his superhuman physique. He even drove his greatsword into the abdomen of the colossal grasshopper and swung it around.

“Damn it!”

Green fluid burst out, splattering all over Maximus, and the parasites inside the monster’s gut coiled around his arm.

“Parasites too? You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Maximus grabbed the blood-red parasite wrapped around his arm like a snake, tore it apart, and swung his sword at the remaining bugs.

They’re swarming in more and more. Maybe they smelled the corpses.

As Helena said, the bugs kept coming.

They must have caught the scent of the dead monsters and were rushing from all directions to feast on the corpses.

The longer the fight dragged on, the more we’d exhaust ourselves. We had to get out of here.

The Plain of Giant Insects wasn’t suitable for a base. We hadn’t even killed the Crush Worm, and the more bugs we killed, the more would swarm in-if this turned into a war of attrition, we’d lose for sure.

“What the hell is this situation?!”

“We need to move, now!!”

The late arrivals to the 7th floor panicked at the sight of the giant bugs charging at them.

I shouted at them to get out of here first. There was no telling when the Crush Worm would resurface, and if we wasted our strength here, we’d only be hurting ourselves.

“To the forest! We have to get to the forest!”

At Olivia’s cry, I ordered Joshua to use Amplification again and informed the conquest team that we had to run toward the forest visible on the distant horizon.

“Judging by the trees, it looks like a Forest Giant’s nest. That’s better than the Plain of Giant Insects! Forest Giants won’t approach unless attacked first! Let’s set up at the edge of the forest!”

According to Olivia’s strategy guide, Forest Giants were non-aggressive monsters, so setting up camp in the forest and hunting edible monsters like Two-Headed Deer would ensure stable food supplies and safer exploration of the 7th floor.

“Fall behind and you die! Just run for the forest!!”

We had to escape the Plain of Giant Insects and head to the Forest Giant’s nest.

Only by establishing a forward base there could we increase our survival odds-so we ran, and ran, and ran.